How to make a comment, suggestion or complaint about social work services

This information relates to:

• Children's Services
• Community Support
• Criminal Justice.

Let us know what you think

We would like to hear from you about how well you think we provide social work services to you. We need to hear about when we do things well. We also need you to tell us when we’ve got it wrong. You can email us at publicinfo@eastlothian.gov.uk or pick up a Feedback form and leaflet from any of our social work offices. The information you give us will help us to improve and develop the services that we provide.

Confidentiality

You don’t have to give us your name and contact details if you don’t want to. But it will make it more difficult for us to use the information you give us if we cannot check that it is genuine. This is particularly important if you are making a complaint.
We will treat any personal information you give us in confidence, unless we feel that doing so will put you or other people at risk. If you tell us about a crime, we may have to report this to the Police.

What happens to your feedback?

We will send your comments and suggestions on to the relevant teams and departments. If you want to make a complaint, read on.

Who can make a complaint?

You can complain for yourself or you can complain on someone else’s behalf.

How to make a complaint

There are lots of ways to do this. You can:

• speak to your worker or their manager (for example, domiciliary care worker, personal assistant, respite carer, social worker)
• phone our Complaints Officer to chat things through on 01620 827497
• write to the Director of Community Services if you want to complain about Criminal Justice or Community Care services 
• write to the Director of Education and Children’s Services if you want to complain about Children’s Services
• email us at publicinfo@eastlothian.gov.uk or pick up a Feedback form and leaflet from any of our social work offices.

What happens next?

We will try to sort your concerns out straight away. If you still want to complain, we must let you know within five days that we are dealing with your complaint.
A senior officer will investigate your complaint and may want to interview you. If so, you can bring someone with you to support you. We can arrange a mutually convenient place to have this meeting. We will contact you within 28 days to let you know what the investigator has decided, or that the investigation is still going on.
We may ask if you would like to meet us to discuss your complaint and see how we can resolve it.
When the investigation is finished, we will write to let you know whether we agree with your complaint or not. We will also tell you about any actions we are taking because of our investigation.

If you are not happy about how we have dealt with your complaint

You may appeal to an independent Complaints Review Panel. Please write to the Chief Executive, East Lothian Council. Tell him why you are unhappy. Ask him to set a date for an independent Complaints Review Panel. Our Complaints Officer will be happy to help you with this.
Useful addresses:

There are other bodies that can help

If you are still unhappy, you can also take your complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, although it is usually better to use the Council’s complaints procedure first. You should contact the Ombudsman within 12 months of the date that you first noticed the problem you are complaining about. In special circumstances, the Ombudsman may be prepared to deal with matters that have gone on longer than 12 months. Please write to:

You can also complain to the Care Commission about any service
that is registered with them. Please contact:

or